Louise Peete was born Louise Pressler in Bienville, Louisiana, on September 20, 1880. Her father worked as a printer, and her mother raised the couple’s three daughters at home. As a middle child, Louise developed a reputation as an unruly teenager, and at age 15, her father sent her to boarding school.
She struggled with the strict rules there and soon got into trouble. When three classmates reported missing jewelry, a search uncovered the items in Louise’s bedroom. She was expelled and returned to Louisiana.
Back home, she often stayed out all night. She met Russell Antony, nine years her senior, and the couple married and moved to Dallas. Russell soon realized the marriage was a mistake. Louise stole from shops and went out with other men while he worked. They divorced, and Louise returned to Bienville.
In 1903, she met Henry Bosley, a traveling salesman. A few days later, they married in New Orleans. Their life became nomadic, with the couple living in boarding houses and rundown hotel rooms. Henry worked on commission, and his income varied, making it hard to provide the luxuries Louise craved.
In Tulsa, residents reported missing jewelry. A search found the items in Louise and Henry’s room. Henry apologized and defused the situation, but the couple was asked to leave. In Waco, Texas, Louise attempted to steal from a jewelry shop. Police arrested her, but her respectful manner and tearful apology earned her a suspended sentence.
In the summer of 1906, Henry returned from a trip to find Louise with another man. He was reportedly devastated. Two days later, he was found dead in a hotel near Waco with a .32 caliber pistol in his hand. The death was ruled a suicide.
Louise calmly sold her husband’s belongings and moved to Boston, where she worked as an escort for wealthy older men. She stole their jewelry, keeping what she liked and selling the rest. After a year, a client discovered her activities, and she returned to Texas.
She soon met Joe Apple, a brash man who gave the impression of wealth with his smart clothes and diamond rings. A week after they met, Joe was found dead, shot and robbed of his jewelry. Louise was arrested but told the judge she shot him in self-defense after he became violent. She was cleared of the crime.
In 1913, she met Harry Frost, a hotel manager considered hard-working and respectable. When jewelry and valuables went missing from the hotel, police suspected him. He was found dead in his room with a revolver by his side, and his death was declared a suicide.
In 1914, Louise was living in Denver, where she met Richard Peete, a successful businessman. They married, and in 1916, Louise gave birth to a daughter named Betty. The marriage had ups and downs, but Richard’s business success kept Louise relatively happy. By 1920, a sharp economic recession hurt Richard’s business, and Louise’s living standards declined. She left her husband and went to California.
In Los Angeles, Louise answered an advertisement for a housekeeper position at a large house on South Catalina Street. The owner was Jacob Denton, a wealthy widower in his forties who had lost his wife and daughter to influenza months earlier. Louise and her daughter moved in the following day.
Louise quickly searched Jacob’s office and discovered he was very wealthy. She found bank books and jewelry, much of it set with diamonds. Jacob began asking Louise to accompany him to social functions, and they appeared to be a couple. Louise sent her daughter back to Denver to live with Richard.
At the end of May 1920, Jacob asked his niece, Mrs. Olmans, to conduct an inventory of everything in his house. He gave no reason, but it may have been because he suspected Louise of helping herself to his valuables.
On June 1, Louise asked the gardener to take earth to the basement, saying she wanted to grow mushrooms. The gardener complied but noted he did not see Jacob. In the following days and weeks, many people noticed Jacob was nowhere to be seen.
Louise told different people different stories. She said Jacob had an infection in his arm, then that the arm had been amputated. She told others he was in Portland or San Francisco. She attempted to access his safe-deposit box and tried to cash a check, but the signature did not match. When a bank official asked where Jacob was, Louise said he had gone off with a Spanish lady.
Eventually, Jacob’s daughter from his first marriage wrote to her cousin, Mrs. Olmans, because her monthly allowance had not arrived. Mrs. Olmans went to the house, but Louise said Jacob was away. Louise told neighbors she was returning to Denver to reconcile with her husband.
Jacob’s daughter hired a lawyer named Rush Blodgett to track him down. By September 1920, the lawyer was concerned and contacted the police. They searched the house on South Catalina Street and found four locked basements. Underneath a pile of earth meant for mushroom growing, they discovered the decomposing body of Jacob Denton. He had died from a shot in the back.
Police contacted Denver authorities, and Louise Peete was arrested. She denied any knowledge of the murder and blamed the mysterious Spanish lady. A search of the house uncovered a .32 caliber pistol in an upstairs closet with one bullet fired.
Her trial began on January 21, 1921. The prosecution produced credible witnesses and dismissed the Spanish lady as a fabrication. The defense called witnesses who claimed they had seen the Spanish lady with Jacob, and one said he had seen Jacob after June with one arm missing. Louise remained calm but did not take the stand.
On February 17, the all-male jury returned a guilty verdict after four hours of deliberation. The judge sentenced Louise Peete to life in prison.
Her husband Richard wrote to her, but in 1924, heartbroken and with a ruined reputation, he committed suicide.
In 1933, Louise was transferred from San Quentin to the new female prison in Tehachapi. In 1939, her case went before the parole board. A journalist named Caroline Walker wrote to the board, warning that Louise was too dangerous to release. She said Louise had existed by stealing, lying, and violence. A parole board member named Emily Lathan dismissed the concerns, saying Miss Walker needed to believe the prison could reform a person.
On April 11, 1939, 18 years after her conviction, Louise Peete was released on parole. She took the name Annalee and worked in a serviceman’s canteen.
In 1942, an elderly female co-worker disappeared. Police went to the co-worker’s home and found it in disarray. They contacted her best friend at work, whom they knew only as Annalee. She told a strange story about the woman falling over. The police did not realize Annalee was really Louise Peete.
In the summer of 1943, Emily Lathan, the parole board member who had supported Louise’s release, fell ill. Louise moved into her apartment to care for her. Two weeks later, Emily Lathan died of a stroke. Louise could not resist helping herself to Emily’s .32 caliber pistol.
Louise’s parole conditions required her to work. A friend named Margaret Logan suggested Louise work for her, nursing her elderly husband Arthur, who suffered from dementia. Louise moved in with the Logans. Margaret had known Louise for over 20 years and believed she was innocent.
Louise disliked working and tried to persuade Margaret to commit Arthur to an institution. Margaret instead gave up her job to care for Arthur more herself. Louise convinced Margaret that she owned a property in Denver that she could sell and would invest the money in Margaret’s real estate scheme. Margaret purchased a property with strict payment schedules.
In early May 1944, Louise met an elderly bank manager named Lee Judson. A week later, they married, violating her parole conditions. They agreed to keep the marriage a secret.
Margaret was under pressure to complete her real estate purchase but did not have the funds. Louise had not produced any money from the Denver property. Things got worse when Louise tried to cash a $200 check by forging Margaret’s signature. Margaret asked for a meeting to go through their finances.
On May 29, 1944, Louise told her husband to stay at the Glendale Hotel while she went to Margaret’s home. Two days later, Louise and her husband moved into Margaret Logan’s house. Margaret was no longer there.
Louise convinced authorities that Arthur needed to be committed. On June 5, he was taken to Patton State Hospital. When friends and relatives called, Louise told them Arthur had bitten his wife so seriously that her nose was disfigured, and she was too upset to see anyone.
On December 6, 1944, Arthur Logan died. Louise instructed authorities to use his body for medical research, saying it was what Arthur wanted.
Louise was now 64. She forged Margaret’s signature on parole reports and sent them to her parole officer. But the parole officer noticed the reports did not look right and showed them to the chief investigator for the district attorney, Walter Lenz. He concluded the reports were written by a different hand.
Homicide chief Thad Brown investigated. He spoke to Margaret and Arthur’s friends and neighbors, all of whom said they had not seen Margaret for months. Nurses at Patton State Hospital said Arthur had not received a single visitor during his six months there.
On the evening of December 20, police arrived at the house. Louise repeated her story about Arthur biting his wife. Thad Brown did not believe her. She admitted forging the parole papers but insisted Margaret had instructed her to do it.
Police searched the house and garden. Thad Brown noticed a plot of earth bordered by flowers with an avocado tree at the end. He ordered his men to dig. They quickly uncovered a human vertebra, then the decaying body of Margaret Logan.
Louise was taken back to the property but would not look at the body. Under questioning, she admitted burying Margaret but denied murdering her. She said Arthur Logan had beaten his wife and then shot her. Louise claimed she restrained him but did not call the police because she thought no one would believe her due to her previous convictions.
Police found a revolver with the initials E.L. It was the gun stolen from Emily Lathan.
Louise was arrested. The following day, her husband Lee Judson, humiliated and heartbroken, took his own life by jumping down a stairwell.
Louise Peete’s trial began in Los Angeles on April 23, 1945. Prosecutors said she killed Margaret Logan to gain control of her finances. They showed the jury the transcript of Jacob Denton’s trial, highlighting how similar the two cases were. Witnesses described Louise’s strange behavior since June 1944.
The defense argued Margaret died by her husband’s hand and Louise merely panicked. This time, Louise took the witness stand. She spoke articulately and charmed the jury, coming across more like a favorite aunt than a woman on trial for murder.
On May 31, the trial ended. The jury took three hours to deliberate and returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder. The judge sentenced Louise Peete to death.
For the next two years, Louise protested her innocence. Her lawyers applied for appeals, but each was denied.
Louise Peete was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison on April 11, 1947.